Although I am a Canadian by nationality and western by career, I am Chinese by birth and upbringing, and what happens in China , and to China , is important to me. Thus, I always feel a sense of pride whenever China excels, such as in being the birth place and home of the world's best martial arts, and her brilliant hosting of and performances in the 2008 Olympics. Conversely, I always feel a sense of shame whenever China appalls the world with her human and animal abuses.

Case in point here is my previous pride in China's recent open championing of the all-electric vehicle, and my disappointment in her withdrawal from it under economic influences (see the article below), in this our new era where Ecology must be given priority over Economy.

This retro move on China 's part will worsen climate change and spur global warming. These have devastating global consequences - sea-level-rise, unbearable heat, and prolonged drought in many "bread baskets" and rainforests of the world. In terms of sea-level rise, the world will lose an enormous amount of highly populated and agriculturally productive land, including the U.S. east and south, northern Europe and the Amazon Basin .

This will wipe out also the entire historic and agricultural China , leaving just the high desert to the north, the badlands to the far west, and the mountains to the near west and south. Not just millions but over a billion Chinese people will have to be relocated, but to where? This will make the Three Gorges Dam displacements look like a mere practice exercise.

China has a continuous history in the Central Plains for 4,500 years. The Central Plain is China . But partly due to what the Chinese have elected to do in 2009, China will soon lose herself to the sea, and the rest to heat and drought, while the United States and, say, India, will remain geographically largely intact. Is the current Chinese leadership willing to take this responsibility of China 's not-too-distant self-destruction?

The Chinese is admired for defining "crisis" as a "dangerous opportunity". I hope that China will use this dangerous crisis as an opportunity to lead the world from the edge of the abyss.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China 's campaign to bring cleaner, low-emission vehicles to its roads may take a back seat as the government seeks first to stimulate growth and counter dwindling sales in the world's largest car market.

Battery and car maker BYD Ltd and other Chinese auto manufacturers with ambitions to be among the first globally to market all-electric vehicles are pinning their hopes on regulatory support to spur demand.

But creating an emission-free vehicle market for China is unlikely to be a priority. While China has made much progress in setting standards regulating vehicle emissions, it has not gone as far as providing incentives for individual buyers of the expensive, but low-polluting cars.

"I hope government subsidies can help boost demand, because this is good technology, though expensive compared to conventional cars," Henry Li, general manager for BYD's auto unit, said in an interview at the firm's Shenzhen headquarters.

China, the fastest growing major market for vehicles, is also the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Car sales growth in China , which overtook the United States in January to become the world's largest auto market, slowed to a single-digit rate in 2008 for the first time in at least 10 years as consumer confidence waned in a slowing economy, spurring government steps to bolster demand.

To lure buyers back into showrooms, Beijing in January unveiled a raft of policies including halving the auto purchase tax for cars with engine sizes below 1.6 liters. The government also scrapped some road fees and offered subsidies for farmers to boost demand for fuel-efficient vehicles in rural areas.

But given the high cost of developing hybrid and all-electric cars, automakers require more than the lifting of road fees and tax breaks to stimulate demand, experts said.

"There should be some incentives in place to convince consumers to switch to electric cars," said Sinling Chung, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based EuAuto Technology Ltd, which recently began marketing a China-made microcar in Europe .

"There is also the issue of infrastructure. At some point car owners will need juice points where they can park and plug in the cars," said Chung in an interview at EuAuto's Shenzhen plant.

EuAuto plans to sell its two-door micro cars in China within three years, but has turned first to Europe , where subsidies for consumers help drive demand for electric cars.

HYBRID CARS

BYD started selling a plug-in electric hybrid car in December, called the F3 dual-mode or F3DM, which charges through a conventional home outlet and is supported by a small petrol engine. BYD, known for its cell phone batteries and famous investor, Warren Buffett, plans to roll out its all-electric car, the e6, later this year. That could make it the world's first commercially-distributed electric car.

More established Chinese carmakers have also been developing hybrid and all-electric cars.

Wuhu-based Chery Automobile built a hybrid model, the A5, and unveiled a prototype of its pure electric car, the S18 in February, while Shanghai General Motors Ltd, the 50-50 joint venture between General Motors Corp and SAIC Motor Corp, introduced the Buick LaCrosse Eco-hybrid in China last July.

The expensive cars, however, have not been flying out of showrooms.

BYD's F3DM sells at about 150,000 yuan ($21,935), which is 30-40 percent cheaper than Toyota 's Prius in China . It is still double the cost of a comparable gasoline-powered car.

Toyota's Prius, whose battery stores energy from the engine to boost car power, sold 3,465 units from 2006 to 2008 in China -- fewer than expected, according to Daiwai analyst Ricon Xia.

Honda Motor Co put off plans to produce its hybrid model locally due to poor market response to its Hybrid Civic, Xia said, while Shanghai GM's LaCrosse sold less than 600 units in the second half of last year.

GREEN CAR PROGRAM

China stepped up its support of green vehicles in January, offering up to 500,000 yuan in subsidies for companies and agencies purchasing electric vehicles for fleet use.

While the move was seen as positive for makers of green cars, experts say it will do very little to create demand unless subsidies are extended to individual car buyers.

"Extending a subsidy to a mass market will be a powerful incentive, but requires a lot of money," said JP Morgan analyst Charles Guo.

"There may be some debate whether this is necessary, so it's unlikely for the program to be expanded near term," he said.

For now, Beijing is more focused on driving consolidation in its fragmented and overcrowded car industry.

Beijing is widely expected to soon issue a detailed plan allowing big state-run companies to take over smaller rivals.

"The most important thing for the government right now is to increase demand and restructure the sector, " said Vivien Chan, analyst with SinoPac Securities ( Asia ) Ltd. "Developing the green car segment is secondary to all the other objectives."

Although I am a Canadian by nationality and western by career, I am Chinese by birth and upbringing, and what happens in China , and to China , is important to me. Thus, I always feel a sense of pride whenever China excels, such as in being the birth place and home of the world's best martial arts, and her brilliant hosting of and performances in the 2008 Olympics. Conversely, I always feel a sense of shame whenever China appalls the world with her human and animal abuses.

Case in point here is my previous pride in China's recent open championing of the all-electric vehicle, and my disappointment in her withdrawal from it under economic influences (see the article below), in this our new era where Ecology must be given priority over Economy.

This retro move on China 's part will worsen climate change and spur global warming. These have devastating global consequences - sea-level-rise, unbearable heat, and prolonged drought in many "bread baskets" and rainforests of the world. In terms of sea-level rise, the world will lose an enormous amount of highly populated and agriculturally productive land, including the U.S. east and south, northern Europe and the Amazon Basin .

This will wipe out also the entire historic and agricultural China , leaving just the high desert to the north, the badlands to the far west, and the mountains to the near west and south. Not just millions but over a billion Chinese people will have to be relocated, but to where? This will make the Three Gorges Dam displacements look like a mere practice exercise.

China has a continuous history in the Central Plains for 4,500 years. The Central Plain is China . But partly due to what the Chinese have elected to do in 2009, China will soon lose herself to the sea, and the rest to heat and drought, while the United States and, say, India, will remain geographically largely intact. Is the current Chinese leadership willing to take this responsibility of China 's not-too-distant self-destruction?

The Chinese is admired for defining "crisis" as a "dangerous opportunity". I hope that China will use this dangerous crisis as an opportunity to lead the world from the edge of the abyss.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China 's campaign to bring cleaner, low-emission vehicles to its roads may take a back seat as the government seeks first to stimulate growth and counter dwindling sales in the world's largest car market.

Battery and car maker BYD Ltd and other Chinese auto manufacturers with ambitions to be among the first globally to market all-electric vehicles are pinning their hopes on regulatory support to spur demand.

But creating an emission-free vehicle market for China is unlikely to be a priority. While China has made much progress in setting standards regulating vehicle emissions, it has not gone as far as providing incentives for individual buyers of the expensive, but low-polluting cars.

"I hope government subsidies can help boost demand, because this is good technology, though expensive compared to conventional cars," Henry Li, general manager for BYD's auto unit, said in an interview at the firm's Shenzhen headquarters.

China, the fastest growing major market for vehicles, is also the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Car sales growth in China , which overtook the United States in January to become the world's largest auto market, slowed to a single-digit rate in 2008 for the first time in at least 10 years as consumer confidence waned in a slowing economy, spurring government steps to bolster demand.

To lure buyers back into showrooms, Beijing in January unveiled a raft of policies including halving the auto purchase tax for cars with engine sizes below 1.6 liters. The government also scrapped some road fees and offered subsidies for farmers to boost demand for fuel-efficient vehicles in rural areas.

But given the high cost of developing hybrid and all-electric cars, automakers require more than the lifting of road fees and tax breaks to stimulate demand, experts said.

"There should be some incentives in place to convince consumers to switch to electric cars," said Sinling Chung, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based EuAuto Technology Ltd, which recently began marketing a China-made microcar in Europe .

"There is also the issue of infrastructure. At some point car owners will need juice points where they can park and plug in the cars," said Chung in an interview at EuAuto's Shenzhen plant.

EuAuto plans to sell its two-door micro cars in China within three years, but has turned first to Europe , where subsidies for consumers help drive demand for electric cars.

HYBRID CARS

BYD started selling a plug-in electric hybrid car in December, called the F3 dual-mode or F3DM, which charges through a conventional home outlet and is supported by a small petrol engine. BYD, known for its cell phone batteries and famous investor, Warren Buffett, plans to roll out its all-electric car, the e6, later this year. That could make it the world's first commercially-distributed electric car.

More established Chinese carmakers have also been developing hybrid and all-electric cars.

Wuhu-based Chery Automobile built a hybrid model, the A5, and unveiled a prototype of its pure electric car, the S18 in February, while Shanghai General Motors Ltd, the 50-50 joint venture between General Motors Corp and SAIC Motor Corp, introduced the Buick LaCrosse Eco-hybrid in China last July.

The expensive cars, however, have not been flying out of showrooms.

BYD's F3DM sells at about 150,000 yuan ($21,935), which is 30-40 percent cheaper than Toyota 's Prius in China . It is still double the cost of a comparable gasoline-powered car.

Toyota's Prius, whose battery stores energy from the engine to boost car power, sold 3,465 units from 2006 to 2008 in China -- fewer than expected, according to Daiwai analyst Ricon Xia.

Honda Motor Co put off plans to produce its hybrid model locally due to poor market response to its Hybrid Civic, Xia said, while Shanghai GM's LaCrosse sold less than 600 units in the second half of last year.

GREEN CAR PROGRAM

China stepped up its support of green vehicles in January, offering up to 500,000 yuan in subsidies for companies and agencies purchasing electric vehicles for fleet use.

While the move was seen as positive for makers of green cars, experts say it will do very little to create demand unless subsidies are extended to individual car buyers.

"Extending a subsidy to a mass market will be a powerful incentive, but requires a lot of money," said JP Morgan analyst Charles Guo.

"There may be some debate whether this is necessary, so it's unlikely for the program to be expanded near term," he said.

For now, Beijing is more focused on driving consolidation in its fragmented and overcrowded car industry.

Beijing is widely expected to soon issue a detailed plan allowing big state-run companies to take over smaller rivals.

"The most important thing for the government right now is to increase demand and restructure the sector, " said Vivien Chan, analyst with SinoPac Securities ( Asia ) Ltd. "Developing the green car segment is secondary to all the other objectives."

Although I am a Canadian by nationality and western by career, I am Chinese by birth and upbringing, and what happens in China , and to China , is important to me. Thus, I always feel a sense of pride whenever China excels, such as in being the birth place and home of the world's best martial arts, and her brilliant hosting of and performances in the 2008 Olympics. Conversely, I always feel a sense of shame whenever China appalls the world with her human and animal abuses.

Case in point here is my previous pride in China's recent open championing of the all-electric vehicle, and my disappointment in her withdrawal from it under economic influences (see the article below), in this our new era where Ecology must be given priority over Economy.

This retro move on China 's part will worsen climate change and spur global warming. These have devastating global consequences - sea-level-rise, unbearable heat, and prolonged drought in many "bread baskets" and rainforests of the world. In terms of sea-level rise, the world will lose an enormous amount of highly populated and agriculturally productive land, including the U.S. east and south, northern Europe and the Amazon Basin .

This will wipe out also the entire historic and agricultural China , leaving just the high desert to the north, the badlands to the far west, and the mountains to the near west and south. Not just millions but over a billion Chinese people will have to be relocated, but to where? This will make the Three Gorges Dam displacements look like a mere practice exercise.

China has a continuous history in the Central Plains for 4,500 years. The Central Plain is China . But partly due to what the Chinese have elected to do in 2009, China will soon lose herself to the sea, and the rest to heat and drought, while the United States and, say, India, will remain geographically largely intact. Is the current Chinese leadership willing to take this responsibility of China 's not-too-distant self-destruction?

The Chinese is admired for defining "crisis" as a "dangerous opportunity". I hope that China will use this dangerous crisis as an opportunity to lead the world from the edge of the abyss.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China 's campaign to bring cleaner, low-emission vehicles to its roads may take a back seat as the government seeks first to stimulate growth and counter dwindling sales in the world's largest car market.

Battery and car maker BYD Ltd and other Chinese auto manufacturers with ambitions to be among the first globally to market all-electric vehicles are pinning their hopes on regulatory support to spur demand.

But creating an emission-free vehicle market for China is unlikely to be a priority. While China has made much progress in setting standards regulating vehicle emissions, it has not gone as far as providing incentives for individual buyers of the expensive, but low-polluting cars.

"I hope government subsidies can help boost demand, because this is good technology, though expensive compared to conventional cars," Henry Li, general manager for BYD's auto unit, said in an interview at the firm's Shenzhen headquarters.

China, the fastest growing major market for vehicles, is also the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Car sales growth in China , which overtook the United States in January to become the world's largest auto market, slowed to a single-digit rate in 2008 for the first time in at least 10 years as consumer confidence waned in a slowing economy, spurring government steps to bolster demand.

To lure buyers back into showrooms, Beijing in January unveiled a raft of policies including halving the auto purchase tax for cars with engine sizes below 1.6 liters. The government also scrapped some road fees and offered subsidies for farmers to boost demand for fuel-efficient vehicles in rural areas.

But given the high cost of developing hybrid and all-electric cars, automakers require more than the lifting of road fees and tax breaks to stimulate demand, experts said.

"There should be some incentives in place to convince consumers to switch to electric cars," said Sinling Chung, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based EuAuto Technology Ltd, which recently began marketing a China-made microcar in Europe .

"There is also the issue of infrastructure. At some point car owners will need juice points where they can park and plug in the cars," said Chung in an interview at EuAuto's Shenzhen plant.

EuAuto plans to sell its two-door micro cars in China within three years, but has turned first to Europe , where subsidies for consumers help drive demand for electric cars.

HYBRID CARS

BYD started selling a plug-in electric hybrid car in December, called the F3 dual-mode or F3DM, which charges through a conventional home outlet and is supported by a small petrol engine. BYD, known for its cell phone batteries and famous investor, Warren Buffett, plans to roll out its all-electric car, the e6, later this year. That could make it the world's first commercially-distributed electric car.

More established Chinese carmakers have also been developing hybrid and all-electric cars.

Wuhu-based Chery Automobile built a hybrid model, the A5, and unveiled a prototype of its pure electric car, the S18 in February, while Shanghai General Motors Ltd, the 50-50 joint venture between General Motors Corp and SAIC Motor Corp, introduced the Buick LaCrosse Eco-hybrid in China last July.

The expensive cars, however, have not been flying out of showrooms.

BYD's F3DM sells at about 150,000 yuan ($21,935), which is 30-40 percent cheaper than Toyota 's Prius in China . It is still double the cost of a comparable gasoline-powered car.

Toyota's Prius, whose battery stores energy from the engine to boost car power, sold 3,465 units from 2006 to 2008 in China -- fewer than expected, according to Daiwai analyst Ricon Xia.

Honda Motor Co put off plans to produce its hybrid model locally due to poor market response to its Hybrid Civic, Xia said, while Shanghai GM's LaCrosse sold less than 600 units in the second half of last year.

GREEN CAR PROGRAM

China stepped up its support of green vehicles in January, offering up to 500,000 yuan in subsidies for companies and agencies purchasing electric vehicles for fleet use.

While the move was seen as positive for makers of green cars, experts say it will do very little to create demand unless subsidies are extended to individual car buyers.

"Extending a subsidy to a mass market will be a powerful incentive, but requires a lot of money," said JP Morgan analyst Charles Guo.

"There may be some debate whether this is necessary, so it's unlikely for the program to be expanded near term," he said.

For now, Beijing is more focused on driving consolidation in its fragmented and overcrowded car industry.

Beijing is widely expected to soon issue a detailed plan allowing big state-run companies to take over smaller rivals.

"The most important thing for the government right now is to increase demand and restructure the sector, " said Vivien Chan, analyst with SinoPac Securities ( Asia ) Ltd. "Developing the green car segment is secondary to all the other objectives."

How the CLIMATE will CHANGEThe role of Latent Heat of Fusion in Global Warming

byAnthony Marr

The following is a thought experiment in geophysics performed by Anthony Marr in regards to climate change and how it will unfold over the next few decades. It may or may not be the same as any modeling being conducted by anyone else, past or present. If so, it is a mutual confirmation. If not, it will shed light on how the climate will change not yet been seen.

The crucial item in this consideration is called Latent Heat, or Enthalpy. "Latent" means "hidden". The following will explain.

On a hot and dry day, sweating will cool the body, because when the sweat evaporates, it absorbs "latent heat of evaporation" from it's surroundings, mostly your skin. So, in a real sense, heat is removed from your skin to change the sweat from liguid to vapor. Conversely, if steam hits your skin and condenses into water, it would release the latent heat, thus heating your skin even more than boiling water. Simply, latent heat is absorbed when a substance changes from solid to liquid and from liquid to vapor, and it is released when the vapor condenses into liquid, and when the liquid freezes into solid. The latent heat involved in melting and solidification is called the Latent Heat of Fusion (LHF), and that involved in boiling and condensation is called the Latent Heat of Evaporation (LHE). For water, the LHF is 40 calories or 334 jules per gram, and the LHE (at the boiling point) is 280 calories or 2260 jules per gram.

The thing to note about LHF and LHE is this. When heat is applied to water above freezing, say, +10C/+48F, the more heat applied, the higher the temperature of the water becomes, which is common sense. But if heat is applied to a bucket of ice at, say, -10C/+16F, the content of the bucket would warm up to 0C/32F, but no higher, no matter how much more heat is applied. More heat will raise the melting rate, but not the temperature. But once all the ice had melted, the temperature of the result water will rise as more heat is applied. That amount of heat needed to melt all the ice without raising the temperature from the melting point is the Latent Heat of Fusion (LHF). And likewise for the LHE for boiling water.

The Latent Heat of Fusion (LHF) in regards to Arctic, Antarctic, Greenland and glacial ice will play a huge role in determining how future climate change will unfold. Here in a nutshell is what and how and when and why.

The temperature of the sea ice is of course 0C/32F, whereas the water of the Arctic Ocean in the summer is around 5C/40F. Thus, it melts the ice from below. When the ice melts, it abosrbs LHF from both the water below, and the air above. Thus, it cools the air as well as the water.

At the same time, since the sea ice meltdown has exposed the northern shoreline of Europe and Siberia to the warmer water, the water will warm up the air above the land to as far as 1,000 km /600 miles inland, thus melting the permafrost. The melting of the permafrost also absorbs LHF, this time from the land and from the air, thus cooling both, temporarily.

Meanwhile, the melting of the terrestrial and marine permafrost deposits release trapped methane, a powerful green house gas, which in sufficient volume will generate its own positive feedback loop to melt even more permafrost and further warm the ocean and release even more methane.

It is now apparent that as long as there is ice in the Arctic to melt, thus absorbing LHF, global warming will be relatively. The melting of ice is to an extent self-retarding, since LHF cools the surroundings of the substance being melted, thus slowing the rate of melting.

Conversely, in the winter, when the ice refreezes, it release its Latent Heat of Fusion, thus warming the water and slowing the refreezing. And the refreezing of the Arctic has been slowing over the last 5 years.

This implies something of paramount importance. The melting of Arctic ice in global warming tends to cool the summers by abosrbing LHF through melting, and warms the winters by releasing LHF through refreezing. The latter, however, may end up being a cooling of the northern winter, because of the net loss of sea ice in that year, resulting in a net loss of LHF to the northern regions, including, for example, Vancouver, BC, which did experience a cooler winter in 2008/2009. The problem we face in the immediate future is that, as mentioned, the summer melting rate is increasing and the winter refreezing rate is decreasing, resulting in a net loss of ice and a net increase of LHF in the climatic system.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast the ice melts, the LHF absorption rate by ice-melting will decline with the decline of the total amount of ice to be melted. Since 2000, the Arctic has suffered a net-loss of about 2 trillion tons of sea ice. This means that while the planet is warming due to direct solar radiation and greenhouse-gas-heat-entrapment, it is cooled by the LHF removed from the climatic system due to the ice melt. This gives the Arctic ice the well deserved title of the "air conditioner of the planet". But the capacity of this air conditioner diminishes the less there is left of the sea ice.

To quantify this somewhat, the LHF of water is 334 jules to melt one gram of ice or about 40 calories, which is about 160X the amount of heat needed to raise the same amount of water by 1C/1.6F(!) Since 2000, the Arctic has suffered a 2-trillion-tonne net loss of sea ice. One tonne = 1,000 kg = 1,000,000 g. 2-trillion-tonnes = 2,000,000,000,000,000 grams. At 40 caleries per gram, the total amount of LHF absorbed from the planet by the net ice-loss since 2000 is in the order of 80,000,000,000,000,000 caleries, which is a huge amount of heat removed from global warming. If the ice has completely melted off, this same amount of heat will remain in the system and contribute to global heating.

In fact, the faster the ice melts, the greater the cooling effect in the northern lands, and cold fronts could be more powerful for a few years, inciting comments again of, "Global warming? What global warming?" In this context, a more reasonable approach would be to see that a colder winter could mean faster Arctic ice-melt due to intensified warming of the Arctic Oceam by the Albedo effect.

But of course, the faster the ice melts, the less there will be left to melt, and the less LHF will be absorbed. The air-conditioner will wind down, and eventuall shut down. "Eventually" of course means the time when all the ice in the world has melted, including the Arctic sea ice, the Greenland ice sheet, the mountain glaciers and the Antarctic ice cover. But we don't have to go that far to begin suffering major calamities all over the world. The Arctic Ocean will be 100% sea-ice-free in the summer of 2013, and it's being 100% sea-ice-free in the winter will soon follow, meaning, within decades.

By now, any reader still with me will have concluded that this cooling will be short-lived, and we are currently enjoying the maximum of its cooling effect. Although the ice will continue to melt faster and faster, it's total amount will continue to dwindle, and the amount of LHF absorbed will decline, eventually to zero when there is no ice left. At that point, because there is nothing left to absorb the quintillions of calories in LHFs, global warming speed will take a quantum leap, as if someone had cranked the tial to 10.

Since the Arctic sea ice is now half-gone, the cooling effect of the rest melting will decline. As I wrote earlier, we are currently enjoying the maximum cooling effect of the Arctic sea-ice meltdown. But it won't last. Long before the Arctic becomes ice-free in the winter, perhaps as early as 2012, the global temperature may have begun an inexorable skyrocketing we may not be able to slow down, much less bring to a halt.

There might be some truth in the December 21, 2012 Doomsday prophesy after all. But if the end of the world is going to happen, the means would not be an asteroid strike or nuclear war war or alien invasion. It will be the detonation of the M-Bomb, known otherwise as the Methane Time-Bomb. While the A-Bomb is in terms of kilotons, and the H-Bomb is in terms megatons, the M-Bomb is in terms of gigatons. It is truly the Doomsday Machine. But it won't go off in a flash as the A and H bombs do. The M-Bomb is a slow bomb, which will taken decades to spend, by which time there will be little left to live for.

To my horror, I just watched in one of the MySpace bulletins an extremely graphic video of witch-burning in Kis, West Africa, showing about five people being beaten with sticks, then pushed into a fire pit and actually burnt to death, while onlookers threw wood and leaves into the pit to keep the fire going. The perpetrators were reportedly "Christians". But when I tried to repost the video, it had by then been yanked.Still, it has caused me to write the following short piece, which I will post anyway:

Yesterday I posted a piece titled "Scientists Driven to Confront Politicians on Global Warming". There is a separation of Church and State, but Science is the whipping boy for both, and has been for as long as Science has stood up for truth.

The first case of religious persecution of science, of a scientist, of a female scientist named Hypatia, occurred in Alexandria in 415 AD. The then Christian bishop Cyril condemned Hypatia for her "heretical" teachings, experimental science and pagan practices. She was denounced as "a woman who did not know her place". Cyril's preaching against Hypatia incited a mob led by fanatical Christian monks to have her dragged from her chariot, stripped, and flayed alive with oyster shells unto death. Her story needs to be told.

In the 3 centuries spanning 1400-1700 AD, the Church burnt 450, 000-9,000,000 people at the stake for witchcraft (predominantly women) and heresy (predominantly men).

My own personal hero Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was one such heretic, whose heresy being to teach what we now know to be true (thank you, Science!): that the Earth is not fixed at the center of the Universe as the "infallible" Church then taught as "inerrant" truth, but that it moves in a Universe without a meaningful center, that the Sun does not revolve around the Earth as the Church then taught, but the Earth around the Sun, and that the stars are not pin-holes in some sky-vault through which heavenly light shone as the Church then taught, but distant suns, many with their own planets, some possibly with life and some even with civilization. Bruno was seized at age 44, tortured for 8 years throughout which he steadfastly refused to recant, at the end of which he, then a wrecked invalid, was burnt alive at the stake.(For a photo essay see the global warming section of www.HOPE-CARE.org)

Most of the "witches" were single or widowed women with estate. The Church persuaded their neighbors to turn them in as witches, tortured them hideously until they confessed, burnt them alive as certified witches, and confiscated their estates.(How do you think the Church became so filthy rich? Tax exemption?)

Finally, after some residual witch-hunts in America, the persecution has died down. Now, it's just Creationists berating Evolutionists as "evil".

But the persecution did not die out.

If you have the stomach for it, here is a video of "Christians" burning "witches" alive in West Africa, as we speak! (This was written while the video was still up. I think it immoral to yank such truth-revealing videos which the videographer might have risked his/her life to take, just because it offends some apathetic people's sensitivity. These people do not have to watch it.)

Speaking of evil, in my humble opinion there is nothing more evil than human arrogance and cruelty in the name of God..

For scientists to emerge from their ivory towers with their gloves off is unprecedented. If this doesn't make the contemporary politicians get off their medieval thrones to save our children's future, I don't know what will.

Alas, knowing them, they most likely will ignore the independent scientists, since governmental scientists are regularly bent to fit politicians, and scientific truth routinely twisted to fit politics.

It is up to us then, and I mean the whole 6 billion of us, to make the pseudo-leaders follow our lead.

These phrases in my book, and in these two articles, are:

‘Worst- case’ scenarios becoming reality

without action the world faces decades of social unrest and war.encroaching desert

act before the planet becomes an unrecognizable — and , in places, impossible — place to live

C O P E N H A G E N — The world’s leading scientists issued a desperate plea to politicians to act on climate change Thursday, amid warnings that without action the world faces decades of social unrest and war.

REUTERS

Chinese farmers plant grass in an effort to stop an encroaching desert. Leading scientists have warned the world’s governments they must act now on global warming or see more of this.

In what was described as a watershed moment, more than 2,500 leading environmental experts agreed on a statement that told governments to act before the planet becomes an unrecognizable — and , in places, impossible — place to live.

At an emergency climate summit in Copenhagen, scientists agreed that “worst-case” scenarios were becoming reality and that, unless drastic action was taken soon, “ dangerous climate change” was imminent.

In a strongly worded message that, unusually for academics, appealed directly to politicians, they said there was “ no excuse for inaction” and that “weak and “ ineffective” governments must stand up to big business and “ vested interests.”

Steps should be “vigorously and widely implemented,” they said, to reduce greenhouse gases. Failure to do so would result in “significant risk” of “irreversible climatic shifts,” the statement added.

The plea came as Nicholas Stern, the former chief economist of the World Bank whose report two years ago drew attention to the possible results of global warming, told the conference that unless politicians grasped the gravity of the situation it would be “ devastating.”

Increases in average temperatures of six degrees by the end of the century were an increasing possibility and would produce conditions not seen on Earth for more than 30 million years, he said.

That could mean massive rises in sea level, whole areas devastated by hurricanes and others turned into uninhabitable desert, he claimed, forcing billions of people to leave their homelands. Scientists warned, for example, that many low-lying areas of Britain, for example, could be inundated by the sea.

Stern told the summit that politicians continued to underestimate the impact of climate change and that scientists needed to redouble their efforts to get them to understand.

“Much of southern Europe would look like the Sahara. Many of the major rivers of the world, serving billions of people, would dry up in the dry seasons or reroute.

“What would be the implication? Hundreds of millions of people would have to move, probably billions. What would be the implication of that? Extended conflict, social disruption, war essentially, over much of the world for many decades.”

The British economist was speaking as Prince Charles warned that nations were “at a defining moment in the world’s history’’ over climate change.

As he continued his tour of South America, he delivered his most impassioned and urgent plea yet on the need to tackle global warming, saying there were “less than 100 months” to save the planet.

The Copenhagen conference is intended to publicize the latest research on climate change ahead of December’s meeting of world leaders.

The United Nations Climate Conference, which will also be held in Copenhagen, aims to draft an updated Kyoto-style agreement on reducing emissions.

Under the Kyoto deal, developed nations have to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

However, during the meeting scientists have frequently spoken about how former assumptions about the risks have had to be redrawn.

They have repeatedly warned that higher than expected emissions have meant that temperatures will rise at rates far higher than thought just a few years ago.

This in turn will lead to disastrous sea level rises, melting of the icecaps and acidification of the oceans.

The weather will also change, scientists warned, resulting in destruction of the rainforests, widespread droughts and flooding.

Kevin Anderson, the research director at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Manchester, said: “Scientists have lost patience with carefully constructed messages being lost in the political noise. We are now prepared to stand up and say enough is enough.”

OTTAWA - More than 100 leading climate scientists have launched a new offensive challenging the federal government’s climate change plan and urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper along with other Canadian politicians to accelerate efforts to crack down on human activity linked to global warming.

In an open letter sent to the prime minister, opposition leaders and Canadian premiers on Tuesday afternoon, the scientists warned that the existing national climate change policies would fail to address the dangerous impacts of global warming. They also warned that new research suggests human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could do more damage to the earth than was previously predicted in the last international assessment of climate change science from 2007.

“New analyses show that global greenhouse gas concentrations are increasing, sea level(s) rising and Arctic sea ice decreasing faster than projected only a few years ago,” said the letter, signed by 130 Canadian climate science leaders from the academic, public and private sectors. “Water shortages are predicted in the western Prairies, the Okanagan and in the Great Lakes basin. Earlier targets to avoid human interference with the climate system are now seen to be inadequate.”

In the spring of 2006, the scientists sent their first letter to the newly elected Harper government urging it to develop a national climate change strategy, but the new letter says the government isn’t moving fast enough.

More than 200 Canadian experts contributed to the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report from 2007 which was awarded a share of the Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness about the threat of global warming.

Although they are not economists or public policy experts, many scientists believe that putting a price on the release of greenhouse gas emissions which trap heat in the atmosphere should be an essential part of a climate change strategy, said Dr. Gordon McBean, a climatologist from the University of Western Ontario who organized the letter campaign.

“Addressing greenhouse gas emissions will require a polluter-pay approach and absolute emission caps,” said the letter. “ Adaptation to the inevitable impacts of climate change is now imperative and we need a national adaptation strategy to minimize those impacts and gain whatever benefits there may be. We are concerned that the pace with which action is being taken in Canada does not reflect adequately the urgency of the threat.”

Last week, Harper described a carbon tax proposal from the Green party and the federal Liberals as an “insane” approach that would “screw everybody.”

But McBean, who was honoured on Tuesday by his university and the city of London, Ontario, for his contribution to the Nobel Prize-winning report, said he was disappointed about the reaction.

“I’m concerned at the way the debate has turned,” he said in an interview. “I think this is a very serious issue and to respond to it with what I would think are inappropriate comments is not what I would expect from our political leaders.”

The Harper government has proposed to cap the growth of emissions from large industrial facilities by imposing flexible targets per unit of production that would allow some sectors in growth such as the oilsands to increase their overall emissions.

Environment Minister John Baird has described the process of drafting regulations as a massive undertaking that he is trying to complete as fast as possible.

"Our government certainly agrees that climate change is a major issue facing both Canada and the world today," said Baird’s director of communications Garry Keller. "That’s why our government has a real plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an absolute 20 per cent by 2020 and we certainly believe in the ’polluter pays’ principle."

He added that the government’s plan had also allowed for the creation of a carbon-trading regime in Montreal.

The letter was released as Jim Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, issued a new warning in an interview with The Guardian that the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere has already risen above the safe level.

The Canadian scientists said that governments must make further investments in research to guide “sound policy” and international negotiations for a new treaty on global warming.

“In less than 18 months, the global community will convene in Copenhagen to put in place a new agreement to address climate change,” said the letter. “We sincerely hope that, based on the compelling science at hand, our political leaders display the urgency and determination that we believe is required.”

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Recently, the famed British scientist James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia Hypothesis, published an article which did nothing to soften its hard title of "Life Doomed by Climate Woes" - without even an "unless".. Life is doomed already - a foregone conclusion.. A slow bomb has started to explode, and there is nothing we can do to hold it back, much less shut it back down..

This was a little hard to take for even a hard-boiled climate change activist like myself, a certified cup-half-full type of guy who always sees around every dark cloud a bright silver lining.. In this case, I still see a silver lining, but I had to put on Coke-bottle glasses first..

Why am I, the incurable optimist, sounding so pessimistic? Let me be blunt.. I had put a lot of hope in Mr. Obama, your new president, a guiding light for the world, the savior of future generations, champion of change and transformation. . And I am fearful that he might not make it in his given and chosen mission..

Granted, he is a great political athlete, but it is now an Olympian game of life and death, in which the hurdles are unprecedented. . He has only one chance to set a record.. If he falls short, we are doomed.. He is the Make- It-or-Break-It US president, and further, the Make- It-or-Break-It untitled leader of the world.. If he makes it, our children would have a future.. If he breaks it, we'd be dead and will drag millions of species down with us.. He faces many unknowns but he must arrive at whatever future destination that can support life on Earth, if any.. If he stray an inch from his optimal path, he might fall off a cliff, bring all his followers with him.. He will have to do many things never done before, and shed many old ways of doing things which have brought us to where we are in the first place.. He will step on lots of toes, simply because the right wing of human nature is to maintain the status quo and therefore resist the change that he strives to personify.. He will need the courage to piss off a lot of influential and dangerous people, even at risk of injury or death.. He must be the irresistible force that moves the immovable object.. He must do it because it is what Mother Nature has written into his job description, and the future of our children is in his hands..

Let me give one simple example of what this immovable object is.. "Growth is good.. Recession is bad.. Therefore, we must stimulate consumption to re-expand the economy.." This is in spite of the ground- breaking book "The Limits to Growth" published by the Club of Rome way back in 1972.. Basically, it says that the Earth is finite, and we cannot grow indefinitely without exceeding the carrying capacity of the planet.. Had we heeded it, and abided by it in action, our world would be a far safer place than it is now..

To demolish this immovable object, the irresistible force must first himself realize the truth of the matter.. 1 - We have already exceeded the carrying capacity of the planet.. 2 - The carrying capacity of the planet is being further diminished daily by our continued destructive actions.. 3 - Our demands on Earth's resources and ecological tolerance increase daily.. 4 - He who has lived beyond his means must tighten his belt to regain credit and equilibrium.. 5 - He who tightens his belt should not borrow more money in order to loosen it, or to refurbish his mansion.. 6 - The current global economic downturn is Mother Nature's way of tightening our belt for us (since we don't seem to have the wisdom or the dignity to do it voluntarily ourselves).. 7 - Therefore, to borrow more money from China to inject into the US marketplace to stimulate consumption to attempt reboosting the US economy is EXACTLY the WRONG thing to do..

President Obama has chosen Dr Stephen Chu as his science advisor, so he must have realized the direness of the global environmental crisis.. Yet, bowing to the money- conscious public and industrial pressures, he is talking first and foremost, by far, about the economy, WHILE THE EARTH BURNS.. He should have realized that adding greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere can only worsen an already abysmal situation in the global ECOLOGY (vs ECONOMY), and yet, he is promoting coal, and not boycotting the use of dirty Canadian oil in his own country as over 700 US mayors - his underlings - have done for their own cities.. And he should have realized that the United States, his and your country, is heading for a century-long drought which could cause starvation even in the "richest country in the world", since even at this relatively early stage the world is already in the state of food crisis, and the human population is still exploding..

This is to talk provincially since the first duty of the president of the United States is to his own country.. But we have gone way past the era of nationalism, and must think and act globally.. Whether he wants the honor or not, he is the uncrowned leader of the World (albeit with enormous dissension from competing cultures and nations).. At least, he is the person to whom most looked for global leadership, and he cannot sacrifice the World to a country - any country, even the United States.. He must provide leadership not only for the US environment, but the global environment.. He must understand, then convince the world, that the global economic recession or even depression is not a downturn, but a necessity - a necessary thing our species must go through to regain balance with the planet..

According to Lovelock, we are doomed no matter what we do, but we can make ourselves less doomed than more.. The best course for the US president is to pour as much of the available money as possible into building a radically new and green national and global energy infrastructure based on a new, renewable, non-combustion energy technology which can take over from the combustion technology, pay for itself, and further generate wealth for the society from using the free and renewable energy sources and resources.. To spend most of the money on repaving roads and building more bridges at this time, and in even excellent social programs, or in cutting taxes by a few hundred dollars each to stimulate buying (especially goods made with the fossil fuels), to use up this needed capital for something we currently can eek by without, and in the end have nothing to show for it except an elevated standard of living necessitating yet more non-existent money to sustain, is not only to commit political suicide once it is all said and done, but to commit progenocide against all future generations.. With a new infrastructure that can pay for itself and for society, there will then be the money to pave the roads and build the bridges and, if the American people insist, lower the taxes..

Global warming deniers are still saying, incredibly, that since we had a cold winter, global warming is a hoax.. There is no point to try to convince them, but let's look a little beyond our physical horizon.. It has been predicted well before hand that global warming would cause major droughts all over the world, specifically mentioned over a decade ago including Australia, the Amazon and the United States (Georgia, Texas, New Mexico, Montana, California, among others).. All three have come to pass and are still in the process of coming true to whatever full and devastating future extent already predestined by the all the present and by and large irreversible trajectories we have carved on the wall..

And they are just 3 tips of the global drought "iceberg".. The others, less known, include Afghanistan, Argentina, Bali, Bolivia, China (northern), Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Moldova, Niger, Peru, Somalia, West Timor, among others.. We are talking about a global proliferation of severe droughts, complete with desertification in previously fertile regions, with floods in other normally dry places, both destroying what is left of the world's arable lands, thus deepening the global food crisis, not to mention the species loss (millions in the Amazon) due to the resultant desertification ..

The American people, led by President Obama, must bite the bullet today, and keep their belts tight or even tighter, and "Boldly go where no one has gone before" in term of a new principle and direction for our species, and focus our ingenuity in meeting the climate change challenge, and let our sacrificial and fighting spirit shine forth once and for all time.. We must transform our species Homo Sapiens from a world destroyer into a world savior - OVERNIGHT.. No god, no alien, is going to do it for our planet. It is all up to us..

We might have a window of 3 years or so to get this done.. In other words, all that need be done must be done within the 44th US president's first term.. If he doesn't make good in his first term, his second term wouldn't matter, nor would the first term of whatever new 45th president (possibly Sarah Palin).. The 44th president is the Make- It-or-Break-It president.. He has only one chance to do it right, and do it right within his first term, that is, now..

So, where is the silver lining? We'll, the Chinese term for "crisis" is "dangerous opportunity".. But it would be up to the US president to take the opportunity to resolve our dangerous crisis and further create for our children a better world derived from the brightest of our 21st Century visions..

British scientist James Lovelock, famous for his Gaia theory of the Earth being a kind of living organism, said higher temperatures will turn parts of the world into desert and raise sea levels, flooding other regions..

British scientist James Lovelock, famous for his Gaia theory of the Earth being a kind of living organism, said higher temperatures will turn parts of the world into desert and raise sea levels, flooding other regions..

LONDON - Climate change will wipe out most life on Earth by the end of this century and mankind is too late to avert catastrophe, a leading British climate scientist said..

James Lovelock, 89, famous for his Gaia theory of the Earth being a kind of living organism, said higher temperatures will turn parts of the world into desert and raise sea levels, flooding other regions..

His apocalyptic theory foresees crop failures, drought and death on an unprecedented scale.. The population of this hot, barren world could shrink from about seven billion to one billion by 2100 as people compete for ever-scarcer resources..

"It will be death on a grand scale from famine and lack of water," Lovelock told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.. "It could be a reduction to a billion (people) or less.."

By 2040, temperatures in European cities will rise to an average of 110 Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) in summer, the same as Baghdad and parts of Europe in the 2003 heatwave..

"The land will gradually revert to scrub and desert. You can look at as if the Sahara were steadily moving into Europe.. It's not just Europe; the whole world will be changing in that way.."

Attempts to cut emissions of planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) in an attempt to reduce the risks are probably doomed to failure, he added..

Even if the world found a way of cutting emissions to zero, it is now too late to cool the Earth..

"It is a bit like a supertanker.. You can't make it stop by just turning the engines off," he said before the release of a new book on climate change..

"It will go on for a long, long time.. If by some magic you could suddenly bring the C02 down, it wouldn't suddenly cool off.."

Campaigns to promote recycling and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power are a waste of time, Lovelock adds, although he concedes that nuclear power will help meet growing demand for energy..

While financial markets and politicians promote carbon emissions trading schemes to reduce emissions and help the environment, Lovelock says they, too, will have little effect..

"I don't see the efforts of governments around the world succeeding in doing anything significant to cut back the emissions of carbon dioxide," he said..

Efforts should instead be focused on creating safe havens in areas which will escape the worst effects of climate change..

In his book, "The Vanishing Face of Gaia", he adds: "We have to stop pretending that there is any possible way of returning to that lush, comfortable and beautiful Earth we left behind some time in the 20th century.."

The destruction of natural ecosystems for farmland, deforestation and the rapid growth of the human race and livestock have all exacerbated the problem, he added..

Scientists should not underestimate the crucial role of the oceans as an indicator of rising temperatures and tool for reducing carbon dioxide, Lovelock argues..

"Most of the Earth's surface is the ocean.. That holds 800 times more than the atmosphere or the land.. And there is no question that the ocean is steadily warming," he said..

A former skeptic of doom-laden predictions, Lovelock admits he is not entirely comfortable with his role as a modern-day Cassandra, the cursed prophetess of Greek mythology whose counsel was ignored..

However, he says the scale and speed of the looming crisis are so great he must speak out. He is still struck by the public's apparent lack of urgency about the problem..

"Don't blame me for the terrible predictions," said Lovelock, a sprightly, trim figure with silver hair who looks younger than his age and was soberly dressed in navy jumper, tie and casual trousers..

"The UN's IPCC ( Intergovernment al Panel on Climate Change) even in its 2001 report was suggesting temperatures by 2040 and 2050 that were devastatingly hot.. All I'm doing is drawing people's attention to it.."

Winter, if you can call what we've had winter is way different from what I recall as a child. Not nearly as cold, nor does it last as long as it had in the past. Last year alone, we broke many record highs. Our hot summer temperatures started in Spring. We've been in a drought for the last year and a half. Farmers and cattle ranchers are hit hard. There's no pasture, it's become mostly dirt and maybe small patches of dead grass. Ranchers have been forced to reduce herds and maybe have only 25% of them left. Water is drying up and livestock is dying. Hay is incredible expensive. A disaster declaration has already been made and this was before the huge wildfire we had recently. Lack of rain has caused many trees to die. We still have more dead trees we need to cut down. They were stressed by the drought which made them vulnerable to bark beetles. Oaks, beautiful huge pines have died. We are so far behind on rain and have started this year the same way. I keep water out for the birds, wild rabbits, frogs, deer, coyotes. ...whoever needs a drink. Mornings and evenings, I'll see the frogs sitting in the water. They have their own special place I put out for them and our tree frogs are still around. They bug hunt on the side of our house by the outside lights. Just observing all these creatures is so enjoyable. Simple pleasures. I believe too many people have forgotten those.

So Russia has moved to ban their own baby seal hunt. I have to admit that I was so culturally biased that Canada falling behind Russia in anything was a surprise, and so was this humane move on Russia's part.

When Russia first beat the United States in launching a cosmonaut into space, the U.S. cranked up its determination and resources and beat the Russians to the moon. Does Canada have the same fire in its belly? So far that I've seen, sadly not. The fact that Brian Mulroney, one of the least respected of all prime-ministers in Canadian history, is considered the most environmentally conscientious of them all, the current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who champions the disastrous Alberta tar sands and the infamous seal massacre, is hopeless.

Had Canada a leader with greater compassion, wisdom, vision and courage, he or she would see that there is a Russian Achilles' heel with which Canada could still redeem itself in the "Compassion Race". The Russian Chukotka natives are still slaughtering 125 grey whales and 1-3 bowhead whales every year in the name of cultural whaling, one conducted by means of the AK-47 assault rifle, often necessitating hundreds of rounds and over an hour to die per whale.

If Canada would ban the Harp seal hunt right now, it could still surpass the Russians in humaneness regarding marine mammal slaughter. If not, Canada will remain dead last amongst all nations, spiritually speaking.

Russia pledged to ban the killing of all baby harp seals after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin condemned the hunt as a "bloody business."

Rules allowing a six-week window for hunters to target pups after their coats start turning from snow white to gray will be amended to protect all harp seals less than a year old, Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said in a statement Friday. The new rules for the White Sea were published Feb. 25. The government will approve the amendments by March 1, he said.

"It should not be confused with an actual ban," Masha Vorontsova, director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Russia, said. "Remember, 35,000 baby seals will still be killed in the White Sea next month unless Russian ministers act swiftly to complete their pledge."

Russia's harp-seal population has dropped by a third in the past decade to about 200,000 as thawing Arctic ice shrinks their breeding grounds and hunting takes its toll, the Natural Resources Ministry said.

"This is a bloody business that should have been banned long ago," Putin told ministers at a meeting on Thursday, the state-run paper Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported Friday.

In the White Sea breeding grounds, pups are born at the end of February and beginning of March and spend about three weeks on the ice before they take to the water. Hunters traditionally clubbed pups to death before they were two weeks old to avoid damaging their snow-white coats, which are used in the fur industry.

Putin has been depicted in as a lover of the outdoors. State-run media showed Putin, while president, fishing and horseback riding bare-chested in the Tula Mountains, tranquilizing a tiger that had escaped a trap near a film crew, and ordering a $1 billion change in the route of an Siberian oil pipeline away from Lake Baikal.

About Anthony Marr

Anthony Marr
* has a degree in physics
* is the author of "OMNI-SCIENCE and the Human Destiny" (2003) and "Homo Sapiens SAVE YOUR EARTH" (2008)
* 1995, he cleaned up N. American Chinatowns of endangered species medicines
* 1996, he led "the highest-profile anti-trophy-hunting campaign in Canada" (Globe and Mail).
* 1997-1999, he worked in 3 tiger reserves in India.
* 1999, he founded Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE).
* 2004/2005, he conducted operations in Japan against whaling and dolphin slaughter.
* 2003-2011, completed 7 Compassion for Animals Road Expeditions (CARE tours, each covering 30-45 states over 4-7 months), and spoke at the National AR Conference every year
* 2009, he founded the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
* 2010, he won the Henry Spira Grassroots Activist Award.
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/AnthonyMarr001
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.AnthonyMarr13.wordpress.com
www.Dying-for Salvation.blogspot.com